And while I've GOT the internet..

[trinityvixen]

Allow me to say that I don't agree with this Pandagon article. Amanda Marcotte is often brilliant, but her extremism is way off when it comes to Paris Hilton and the many, many reasons to dislike her.

As I've said before, hating Paris Hilton, except in a few cases, isn't about hating a) women, b) unabashedly sexual women, or c) women who dare to be independent. Amanda is just wrong to say that the fascination derives mostly from wanting to punish Hilton for her sexual escapades et al. I'm sorry, I don't believe that for a second. She may have become famous for her leaked sex tape, but she hasn't stayed famous because she's a) attractive (SO NOT), b) sexy (good god, no), or c) got a nice personality (ewwwwwww).

Paris Hilton is famous--and infamous--because she's rich. End of story. She has the money and the under-100-lbs bone structure; she got a TV show; and now we have to look at her all the goddamned time. Okay, so probably she got so famous for her sex tape because she's a female rich person and not a male one and we like to shame women for having sex. Fine. But no one I've heard is celebrating her downfall from the life of the rich and fabulous because she's an uppity bitch. They're celebrating it because she's represents all that's wrong with the distribution of wealth in America--it's assumption of certain privileges and usually the bearing out of those assumptions where the poorer man/woman would be hung out to dry--and she's getting, justly, served instead of getting away with it.

When Hilton was originally sentenced, there was this huge outcry that she's was being picked on because she was famous (as opposed to, say, the accurate assessment that she was just getting what she deserved for flagrantly violating the conditions of her parole). Then she waltzed back out of jail because she was, apparently, too sick to stay there. Last I heard, "too sick to come in today" didn't apply to prison. Suddenly, it was like every tabloid paparazzo realized, "Hey, this girl's got absolutely no sense of responsibility or shame for what she's done." She wanted the judge to tell her what he was going to do to her over the phone, for fuck's sake! It's a sad state of affairs that it took that long for the tide of public opinion to come around to what I knew from the beginning of this brou-ha-ha, but I seriously doubt that anyone was like "HOORAY! THE SEX-WANTING-FEMALE IS LOCKED AWAY!"

Much as I'm gleeful that she's getting righteously served, I do hope she learns from it. I also desperately hope that, deprived of the spotlight for two fucking seconds, she will go away forever. Fuck.

Shorter bus-rant: It ain't about punishing a "girl gone wild." It's about being fed up with the attitude of the rich, borne out by the reactions of the courts for so long, that the rich don't deserve to be punished for what they do, no matter what it is. And yes, I was insanely giddy upon hearing that Paris Hilton was going back to jail. Maybe I'm a bad person for that, but I truly believe in getting what you deserve, and she's had this coming. I don't pity her at all. You know who gets my sympathy? Someone who makes a mistake and does their best to atone for it. Anyone can make a stupid decision. When you make a stupid decision and then follow it up with crass indifference to the harm you've done/might have done, you get no pity from me. I believe in second chances. I don't believe in thirds.

Comments

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I think I was spoiled, years ago, by the movie Quiz Show, in which the hero wanted to nail the corrupt, lying TV executives (who, in the end, got off scott free), but the public was more interested in seeing the WASPy rich contestant (played by Ralph Fiennes) get what was coming to him. It's not that Paris Hilton doesn't deserve to be punished ... I just find the glee over her imprisonment a bit distasteful. The tabloid fascination with Celebrities Gone Wild is what bothers me, personally, not the sentence itself (which, far as I've heard, is typical for the crimes committed).

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Never seen Quiz Show, but the concept doesn't surprise me. We never get anyone but the figurehead (if we're lucky). It would be nice if the backlash against Paris were then redirected at other rich folks who abuse their privilege. Let's hope we should be lucky enough to keep that at the forefront the next time a celebrity goes to court.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

You know who gets my pity? Relatives and friends of people killed by drunk drivers.
Not people who drive drunk while on probation for drunk driving.

Anyway, while I kind of believe that there is no hierarchy of oppressions, I actually do think that class issues are the most potent dividing force in this country right now -- it is certainly present on its own, but the general pattern (with the possible exception of anti-trans prejudice) it is comorbid with most other kinds of oppression. And it has a lot of explanatory power for things that people (like Ms. Marcotte) might otherwise attribute to misogyny.

It also seems like Marcotte is hanging her entire argument on a Silverman joke, which I unfortunately can't see because YouTube pulled it. I don't think this is wise: Silverman is a pretty reactionary comedian, one of those who (like CUMB in many cases) cloaks or distances herself from being reactionary on the grounds that she "makes fun of everyone" without acknowledging that this doesn't make her less offensive or retrogressive. And what she says is funny -- it makes people uncomfortable and appeals to our deeply-learned right-wing social values -- but it's kind of like learning that Sean Hannity criticized her for her lack of self-restraint or something. Shock comedians joke about sex because jokes about class aren't as shocking.

Anyway, there's plenty of reasons to hate Paris. She's set herself up as an incredibly self-centered, calculating, callous self-promoter with a sense of entitlement that could crush an elephant. She appears to lead a purely artificial, joyless life that consists mainly of squandering other people's money and engaging in snippy social maneuvering, just like the girls we all hated in high school. Frankly, I'd forgotten all about the sex tape.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

And y'know? I do give Hilton some admiration for not being embarassed or acting all ashamed about the sex tape thing. But I suspect that it's less because of progressive sex-positive views, and more because it's part of her cold-blooded quest for attention.

I've met (sometimes phenomenally) rich people who can still giggle. I don't think Paris Hilton is one of them.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I know next to nothing about Silverman except that I don't generally find her at all funny in what little I've seen of her. She has a dry delivery to things she says that's supposed to make them more funny, but she seems to deprive her "jokes" of any joking matter so as to make the statements just uncomfortable. I could care less what misogynist things she might have alluded to with Paris because she's bound to be making them from that same weird not-for-joking gray area she always does and I don't have time to pay attention to that kind of humor.

As for Paris, yeah, she's basically self-gratification personified. While it is, as you say in your adjoining comment, refreshing that she's not in the least cowed by her sexual exploits being out for all to know, there's a difference between confidence and arrogance, and she clearly assumes she possesses the former but not to the degree of having the latter. Which is obviously wrong.

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Even the judge, in the hearing where he threw her back in the klink, commented on how the rich and privileged get away with too much and it has to stop. I almost wonder if someone in the sheriff's office was getting paid off, her initial release to house-arrest was so flagrant. Someone from the office called the judge and said they'd file papers about her "medical condition", then they never did? Come on.

I admit a little glee at the pictures on cnn.com yesterday of her weeping in the back of a squad car. She fully expected to get away with flagrantly violating the law, and she isn't getting away with it. As you say, it's really her obvious expectation not to have to serve her sentence that makes it so gratifying that she will, and has nothing to do with her sex life or anything else. Any criminal who clearly considers themself above the law is not going to engender any public support.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Any criminal who clearly considers themself above the law is not going to engender any public support.

Would that that were true! There are NORMAL people who rejoiced in her getting a jail sentence at all (I weep for this country) who are saying they pity her for being yanked out of her "freedom" and thrown back in prison (now I really weep). Don't count out the fear people have of just that--the goverment snatching them and locking them up (with all the freedoms the Bush gvt has been eating up and shitting out, it is actually possible this might happen) just when they thought they were secure and safe.

Sigh.

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

Well, sure, there are always freaks like that (*COUviridianGH*) but for the vast majority, I think, not so much.

I just thought it would've been funny if all her screaming and crying at the hearing where they sent her back was over the state of public discourse in our nation, and all the public and media attention she was getting. "*WEEP!* No, shut off the cameras! Get over to Capitol Hill, there's important stuff going on! Much more important than me! *SOB!*"

[saikogrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree. I was thinking, how moronic is it to drive drunk in the first place, but then to violate the parole byt driving unlicenced TWICE, when she can easily afford a personal fucking chauffer, it's just giving the finger to everyone else, basically. And she needs to learn that she's not above the law just because she's got money.

I'm hoping that this slap in the face will wake her up and maybe she'll do something useful with her life.... maybe.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I almost fear a "reformed" Paris more. Because the cynic in me doesn't believe for a second it would be genuine. And we'll "have" to accept it and not be allowed to pick on her because that would be being bad sports--telling her she has to shape up and then not believing her when she claims to have done.

But I'm a realist. This girl is shallower than a puddle on a hot day. Whether or not she's as stupid as she pretends to be to get attention, I can't say, but the fact she craves that attention as worthier than anything else--like obeying the law--makes me despair of ever correcting this behavior. She's communicated that she's "shocked" at the level of attention she's getting. If she's only just NOW learning that you can get such a thing as NEGATIVE attention when you're in the spotlight, I think I'm justified in assuming a deadly combination of ignorance and self-absorption is going to keep this from really fixing her fundamental problems (namely: ignorance and self-absorption).